pgapeuro - The German Bundesliga

The Bundesliga Logo

Overview: The Bundesliga is the football (soccer) league of Germany. They are not the German national team and do not compete in major events such as the olympics. No single team in the Bundesliga was involved in the olympics like the 1972 Munich Olympics, but individual players from the Bundesliga teams make up the German National team.

History: Football (soccer) is one of the most popular sports in the world, and is very popular in the European countries like Germany. Before the Bundesliga was formed, the German teams were organized by region. This proved to be a problem because some of the smaller regions did not even have strong enough teams to be a challenge to the bigger regions. The Bundesliga was formed during the 20th century in 1963, after WWII and the Cold War, in part to try and increase the competitive nature of the German teams, but most importantly to join the East German league and the West German league. During the Cold War Germany was divided and so was their soccer league.The eastern half of Germany had their own league called the 'Oberliga', and their two best teams were located in Dresden and Berlin. The western half of Germany also had their own league and was structured much like the Bundesliga is today except for not every reigon has to have a team. Some smaller regions may send their good players to a region nearby. Originally when the Bundesliga was formed, there were only 16 teams, but two years later in 1965 two more teams were allowed into the league.

Impact of the Bundesliga: Not only did the Bundesliga impact all of German football and the German people, but it also impacted International soccer for no German team had won the Euro cup before the Bundesliga was formed. In 1966, only three years after the Bundesliga was formed, The Borussia Dortmund team won, and only a year after that the Bayern München Team also won the cup. the Bundesliga impacted the people because before while there had been soccer teams they had never been as organized, and therefore were harder to follow, and the players were more amateur than they are today (they were far from professional), therefore the people were less likely to pay attention to the teams. When this league came along fans became more devout and it became a much bigger form of entertainment during the hard times of the cold war. Today the Bundesliga is engraved into the German people 's lives. There is a fixed time, 3:30, every Saturday in which there is a Bundesliga game, and millions of German fans go to the stadium, listen to the broadcast on the radio, or watch the game of their favorite team.

Teams: There are 18 (men's) teams in the Bundesliga:
Hansa RostokHamburger SV Werder Bremen Hertha BSC Berlin VfL Wolfsburg Hannover 96 DSC Arminia Bielefeld FC Energie Cottbus BV Borussia Dortmond FC Schalke 04VfL Bochum MSV Duisburg Bayer 04 Leverkusen Eintrachct Frankfurt FC Nuremburg Karlsruher SC VfB Stuttgart Bayern München
To see the teams of the Budesliga for the 2007/2008 season and where they are in Germany click here: http://www.tankedup-imaging.com/css_dev/bundesliga.html
Some of the most famous teams of the Bundesliga are Bayern München, Hamburger SV, Hertha Berlin, and Hannover 96. In the 2007/2008 season the top three teams were Bayern München (http://www.fcbayern.t-com.de/en/news/news/index.php?fcb_sid=a4dcf5fc6817d1a68e8349168bde27a7), Werder Bremen (http://www.werder.de/english/news/news.php), and FC Schalke (http://www.schalke04.de/home_english.html). Bayern München has dominated the Bundesliga since their first Bundesliga cup win in 1966, they have won seven out of the past ten Bundesliga Cups including the most recent one in 2008.

Famous Players: The most famous players from the different Bundesliga teams today are probably those who make up the German National team. Here is their roster: (only those from a Bundesliga team are listed, for the full roster go here http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=137)